Challenged
by Scriptor Bellum
Summary: When a mysterious outbreak strikes Zootopia, it seems like the Night Howlers are to blame once again. But it's not that straightforward, because the Night Howler cure is useless to the victims. Can the police, medical team, and other lead solve this before tragedies begin to turn up? slight Wildehopps, Manchas x OC, Emmitt x Mrs. Otterton
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Zootopia or any of its characters, nor am I affiliated with Disney. I only own my OCs, the plot, and the writing. (My friend gave me a hand with the basic plot, but I fleshed it out on my own.)

The fic will be cross-posted chapter by chapter to my art and writing blog on Tumblr, and can be found under the URL crystallinearts.

I'm trying to get back into multi-chapter plotted fic writing as opposed to ficlets. Ficlets are great and they're easier for me to write nowadays, but boy do I love writing some great, meaty, multi-chaptered stuff. Since I absolutely am in love with Zootopia, I'm gonna try my hand at a multi-chaptered fic for it.

I know the plot is probably a little predictable and not very special or original... but I'm having fun writing it. So, please leave a review if you like it! Feedback in the form of praise or constructive criticism is welcomed, but please no hate or anything. Thank you and please enjoy the story! 3

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"A bunch of mammals going crazy? Uh... sir, with all due respect... this sounds like Night Howlers all over again. And we solved that case almost a year ago."

Judy's eyes scanned the sheet again before turning the page. This file didn't read like anything _but_ a Night Howler outbreak, save for the fact that the victims had been hospitalized and not yet released. "Yep, definitely looks like the-"

"Not so fast, Hopps." The chief adjusted his glasses before reaching to turn the final page to the last details of the case file. On it, there were a few drug test results, along with a brief sheet of information signed by Dr. Madge Honey Badger. "The victims have been tested for the presence of Night Howler toxin. All came up negative."

"All of them?" The bunny looked over the test results first, blinking a few times. It _was_ all of them. All ten patients at Cliffside Hospital had been tested, and all ten were shown as having no trace of Night Howler serum in their blood. "Well... there are only ten. It could just be-"

Once again, her superior interrupted her. "A fluke? That's what the doctors thought, too. So they went ahead and administered the antidote. No effect whatsoever, as stated in Dr. Madge's notes. In fact, in two of the patients' cases, it only aggravated their condition. Furthermore, the uncontrollable savagery caused by Night Howlers is lacking. They're vicious and unpredictable, but they are still themselves."

Judy's ears folded back in confusion as she thought about how that could be possible. It mimicked Night Howlers' ability to turn animals feral… but not entirely? "Huh… that's… well… that's strange." Her eyes moved to pore over the notes from Dr. Madge, determined not to miss anything. If this wasn't Night Howlers, the case became exponentially more serious. "I don't know much about medical science, but there are some basics to think about here. There are no other test results – do you know if they tested positive for high counts of white blood cells? Do they have fevers? Is this an actual communicable illness, or another type of drug?"

Bogo pushed himself up away from the desk, removing his glasses as he headed for the door. "The information in the case file is all we have to go on right now, Hopps. If you think you need more information from Dr. Madge, then what do you need to do?"

The rabbit's ears drooped even more, feeling almost as if she were being made a fool of. But it wasn't really his intention, she knew – even the most experienced officers made mistakes and forgot things. "… Go talk to Dr. Madge." He'd done this before, after all. They were almost like little pop quizzes to keep her mind sharp and ensure that she was on the right track.

"Good. Now, locate your partner and get to work… before this gets any worse." With that, the chief opened the door and headed out to the bullpen, leaving Judy to find her teammate so they could shove off.

With a sigh, Judy gave the case file one last look-over. This was shaping up to be a tricky assignment, especially since it wasn't a cut-and-dry Night Howler outbreak. That was a bad scenario, of course, but at least they would have had some idea of how to help the victims. As far as this was concerned, though, they had very little to go on. For all they knew, this… ailment could actually be deadly, or contagious, or both, or any number of awful, dangerous adjectives.

"Well," she murmured, walking out herself and casting a gaze around for Nick. "Guess it just means we have more incentive to figure this out fast."

After spotting the fox over by the front desk talking to Clawhauser, Judy wasted no time in bounding over to grab his tie. "Come on, Wilde, no time for chit-chat." The folder containing all the case information was fanned in front of his face for a few seconds. "This one's important."

Nick's attention was almost instantly focused on the file, though his interest was subtle as usual. "Huh, important? Well, you don't say. Just how important is _this_ one, Carrots?" With a swift movement, the file had been swiped and his eyes were all over the first page. "About as important as that little monkey girl we stopped from selling lemurnade last month? I mean, that permit looked pretty legit to me."

Judy scoffed, leaning against the desk as her partner thumbed through the info. "Well, nice to know there's a cop on the force who thinks purple crayon is legally binding."

"Psh. Carrots. It was a kid selling plastic cups of sour sugar water, probably to buy… I dunno, a doll or somethin'." The page flipped, and Nick's eyes widened almost imperceptibly. "You think she made more than a few bucks? It was a slow day, and you were just lookin' for _anybody_ to use our hammer of justice on."

The bunny rolled her eyes, one ear twitching lazily. "We weren't punishing _her,_ Nick. Her mother knew the law, and didn't follow it. Ergo, a citation and the shutdown of their illegal business. We justice-hammered her mother."

"Hmph, coulda fooled me with the way she, y'know, howled as her mother dragged her off."

"They were _howler monkeys!_ " Judy was finally done talking about last month's exploits, and snatched the file back. "Look, what do you think about this case? Should we go talk to Dr. Madge?"

"Mm, hmmm – nah, not yet. We should go find Emmitt Otterton first." The fox stuck both hands in his pockets, giving a shrug. Maybe that wasn't the logical jump most people's minds would have made, but it made perfect sense to him. "He knew about the Night Howlers. Even though this isn't that, if there's some plant that does similar stuff, bet you dollars to doughnuts he knows about it."

After a few seconds of consideration, Judy's ears stood straight up. That actually wasn't such a bad idea. Even though this wasn't due to Night Howler toxin, maybe there was a plant in the same family that caused similar symptoms. Emmitt was an expert when it came to flowers and plants, so if anyone knew, he did. "Chalk up another point for the clever fox. All our gear's still in the car, right?"

"Eeeeyup. Won't be too long of a drive, either! Should give us just enough time to think of questions, and follow-up questions..."

"Oh, the Chief put you guys on that – that Night Howler look-a-like case?" For the first time since Judy arrived, Clawhauser injected himself into the conversation. And for what it was worth, he looked equal parts curious and concerned. "You know, my… my cousin's actually over in Cliffside because of that. Everyone thought she just had the flu or something, but… a couple days ago, she… apparently almost bit my aunt. Man, it… it was crazy."

Judy's ears folded back slightly as she turned to look up at her friend. So this didn't start as anything serious, then all of a sudden the patient got aggressive and violent? "Oh, wow, I'm… I'm sorry to hear that. Do you have any idea how she's doing now?"

"Oh, well..." The front desk officer gave a half-hearted shrug as he reached for a doughnut from the box beside him. His eyes were avoiding the bunny's, focusing instead on some papers peeking out of one of the drawers. "Aunt Jamie doesn't call me much, and none of this is really in the news much yet, you know? I mean… as far as I know, it hasn't happened again. She wouldn't called me if it did."

A bite that was almost bigger than usual was take out of the pastry before he continued talking. "It's the strangest thing, too. Ronnie's always been shy and stuff – she hardy ever yells, and I've never seen her take a swing at anybody. I don't even think I've seen her try to kill a bug or anything… she's such a sweet, quiet little girl."

"Oh… that's really weird..." Her eyebrows knit together as she gave him a sympathetic look. There honestly wasn't a lot that could make Clawhauser visibly upset or distracted – he was always the upbeat, positive guy who had a smile and a kind word for everyone. To see him trying to concentrate on other things while talking about a subject meant it was starting to get to him. Poor guy.

The smaller cop quickly reached to give her buddy's paw a comforting pat. Even though her own fingers came away with a thin coating of sprinkles and powdered sugar, it didn't really matter. "Well, hey! Don't worry, okay? I'm sure she's gonna be fine, Ben."

"Yeah, me and Carrots are gonna get to the bottom of this," Nick added, poking his face into the picture. Despite the fact that cheering others up wasn't exactly his strong suit, Clawhauser was still his friend. He couldn't just sit by and not give it a shot. "Turn that frown upside-down, Sprinkles! Your cousin's gonna be right as rain before you know it."

The resulting smile that he gave the two was nervous at best. Unfortunately, Nick's certainty and Judy's reassurances clearly didn't stop his worrying. It was obvious, at least, that he was going to attempt to keep looking at the bright side rather than let himself get out-and-out depressed. "Aw, well – I'm sure you guys are gonna solve this soon. You're pretty much the best officers we've got around here other than the Chief! So you just… you go on and get to making things better! You got your radios, right? Call me if you need anything, I'll be right here to help!"

Judy returned the smile, giving one final pat before heading off toward the doors. "You have a good day, Clawhauser! We'll see you soon!"

Their walk to the car wasn't long, and Judy let out a slow, loud sigh as she flopped up into the driver's side seat. The real work had barely begun, and already the weight of the city was on her shoulders. "Geez, poor Clawhauser."

Nick's exclamation of, "Shotgun!" as he climbed in and buckled up was a little unwelcome, but his mood sobered a bit as he shifted in the seat. "Too bad about what's going on with his cousin. We're gonna solve it, though, so don't look so down, Carrots!" A friendly punch to her arm covered up how concerned he was about the whole situation. "He's got faith in us. Best in the business – that's us, right?"

"Sure, sure… that's us, alright." Within a few seconds she was buckled in herself, moving to put the car in drive. There was no doubt in her mind that they could solve the case, but this was serious. She honestly wasn't confident enough to be certain that they could figure this out before things got _bad._

"Let's get going. Next stop, Otterton's Florals."


End file.
